Blair Underwood

With his successful run playing a brash attorney on the popular Stephen Bochco legal drama "L. A. Law" (NBC, 1986-1994), actor Blair Underwood carved out a niche for himself portraying highly educated...
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Actress/singer Vanessa Williams is set to wed for the third time.
The former Miss America, 51, announced the news of her engagement to New York native Jim Skrip during a recent pre-taped appearance on The Queen Latifah Show. Host Queen Latifah was interviewing Williams and her The Trip to Bountiful stage co-stars Cicely Tyson and Blair Underwood when she made a comment about the actress' new diamond, joking, "Vanessa, I have been trying to have a conversation with you ladies and gents, but I am blinded by the light coming from that bling ring on your finger." Williams replied, "Oh sorry, darling. I got engaged. I have had a lot of good things happen... I turned 50 when we were in rehearsal on Broadway, I just got engaged a couple of weeks ago. It has been a lot of blessings."
The interview is due to air in America on Tuesday (30Sep14). Williams has been keeping details of her romance with Skrip under wraps, but she spoke briefly about the relationship in February (14), when she told Philly.com, "He's a guy I met a year-and-a-half ago when I was on vacation with my daughter in Egypt. You go across the world to find somebody who's six hours away. "He was in real estate and, back in the day, he was an accountant."
The star was previously married to her manager Ramon Hervey II, the father of her children Melanie, Jillian and Devin, for 10 years from 1987, while she wed basketball player Rick Fox in 1999. The couple, parents to daughter Sasha, divorced in 2004.

America's First Lady Michelle Obama paid tribute to acting legend Cicely Tyson at the White House on Monday (24Feb14) after screening her latest TV movie The Trip to Bountiful as part of African-American History Month. Tyson joined co-stars Vanessa Williams, Blair Underwood and Keke Palmer at the movie event, which the President's wife hosted as part of a salute to African-Americans who have set an example.
She said, "Ms. Tyson's story is about so much more than honours and accolades. It's really about character and determination. It's about breaking barriers - not just for herself, but for all of us who are blessed by her legacy."
She went on to praise the actress for turning down multiple offers to play prostitutes and morally corrupt characters and instead portraying inspiring, "strong, resilient women" including abolitionist Harriet Tubman and the mother of Kunta Kinte in TV mini-series Roots.
The latest film version of Horton Foote's play will air in America on 8 March (14).

20th Century Fox Television
Before Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill rebooted the franchise, 21 Jump Street was the definitive teen television series. Part of the new Fox Network, this cop drama premiered and seemed to feature nearly every actor of the 1980s and '90s. It also made a young Johnny Depp a household name. The 1980s kitsch of the show makes it supremely addictive.
Baby-faced officer Tom Hanson (Depp) joins an elite group of young looking cops called the Jump Street division. The cops go undercover in high schools to solve crimes and shut down illegal drug runners, chop shops, and investigate major cases. The crew is made up of wise Sergeant Judy Hoffs (Holly Robinson Peete), goofball Officer Doug Penhall (Peter DeLuise), martial artist Sergeant Harry Truman Ioki (Dustin Nguyen), and under the leadership of Captain Adam Fuller (Steven Williams). Each week, the group would not only solve a major crime but also touch on a major social issue like rape, drug abuse, homophobia, or racism.
Although there is a slight cheese factor in some of the storylines and the police work is a little outlandish like The Killing, the series does pack a major entertaining punch. The series brought pretty deep storylines to its characters including the rape of Detective Hoffs, the hidden Vietnamese identity of Nguyen’s character, and the struggle when Hanson shoots a perpetrator.
There’s a perfect blend of great acting and the right level of 1980s/1990s camp to make the series funny, yet thought provoking. Sure, it’s a little crazy and borderline unconstitutional to have undercover cops in high schools. However, its refreshing to take a look back at what life was like before kids were twerking in sex videos on the internet and spending their time stuck to their phones. This series offers a time capsule of the era with the appropriate amount of embellishment and drama. Not to mention the novelty of seeing some A-list and B-list actors as baby-faced Canadian teenagers. Let's also not forget, that Robinson recorded the catchy theme song.
Not only is Depp a shining star but he’s joined by actors that went on to have huge careers. Vince Vaughn, Brad Pitt, Christina Applegate, Rosie Perez, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Blair Underwood all had guest-starring roles in the series.
You can catch all five seasons of the series on Hulu Plus.
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Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams are set to reprise their stage roles in the TV movie adaptation of The Trip To Bountiful. The actresses starred in the Broadway play when it ran from April to October (13), and now they'll be joined by Blair Underwood and Keke Palmer in the movie version of the drama.
Michael Wilson, who directed the play, will make his television directorial debut with the project, according to TheWrap.com.
The play first hit the stage in 1953 and was previously adapted for the big screen in 1985. Geraldine Page won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Carrie Watts in that film.
Production has already begun in Atlanta, Georgia and the movie will air on U.S. network Lifetime in 2014.

Actor Blair Underwood's Ironside remake has been axed by TV bosses after just three episodes. The police drama, based on the classic series which ran in the 1960s and 1970s, starred Underwood as a paraplegic detective in the title role made famous by Raymond Burr.
It debuted in the U.S. at the start of October (13), but has since been dropped from the programme line-up at the NBC network due to low ratings.
Its fourth and final episode will air on Wednesday (23Oct13).
Ironside isn't the only show NBC executives have cancelled - Welcome to the Family, a comedy starring Glee's Mike O'Malley, has also been nixed.

Actor Blair Underwood's mother was thrilled when he signed up to play disabled detective Ironside on TV because she has been confined to a wheelchair with Multiple Sclerosis. The Posse star's mum has been battling the disease for a decade and spending days in a wheelchair as his new TV character has helped the actor understand exactly what her life is like.
He says, "She was very moved when she saw me like that. It has opened up many conversations we never had before."

Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello is set to tackle one of American theatre's most coveted roles when he portrays Stanley Kowalski in playwright Tennesse Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in New Haven, Connecticut later this year (13). The TV and movie hunk will follow in the footsteps of Marlon Brando, who played Kowalski onscreen, and Blair Underwood and Joel Edgerton, who took on the iconic role in recent theatre productions, when he stars in director Mark Rucker's new version, which will open at the Yale Repertory Theatre in September (13) and run for three weeks.
Rene Augesen will play Blanche DuBois - Vivien Leigh's role in the epic 1951 film - in the production.
The 2013/2014 season at Yale Rep also features a new adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, with new music composed by Green Day star Billie Joe Armstrong.

NBC looks like they're keeping it all in the family this fall. Not only is the network bringing back a slew of familiar television faces like Michael J. Fox and Sean Hayes, but the newly released trailers for three of their upcoming comedies are centered around family dynamics.
The Michael J. Fox Show, which brings the leading man back to the small screen, looks to bring the actor's battle with Parkinson's to the forefront with a mix of heart and wise-cracking humor. (In the preview, Fox's character jokes that a shaky ride in a van feels normal to him). Plus, there's Marie from Breaking Bad and Bunk from The Wire!
In addition to The Michael J. Fox Show, there's also Sean Saves the World —which looks like a bit of an extension of Hayes' Will &amp; Grace character Jack (he's a gay single dad, only it's a daughter instead of a son this time around). In Welcome To The Family, Glee's Mike O'Malley stars as an Average Joe dad whose life gets turned upside down when his college-aged daughter gets pregnant and his future in-laws don't quite gel.
On the flip side, there are gritty dramas on the slate from NBC including the already-has-us-hooked The Blacklist, the bloody creepy Dracula (vampires aren't going away anytime soon, folks) with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and the Blair Underwood-starrer Ironside, in which the actor plays a no-nonsense cop in the remake of the 1960s series of the same name. You can watch all of the trailers below and decide which ones you'll watch this fall. (Our money is on Dracula for the vamp appeal and The Michael J. Fox Show becoming a big hit thanks to the star's undeniable charms and his self-effacing humor).
The Michael J. Fox Show
Sean Saves the World
Welcome to the Family
Ironside
Dracula
Here's the fall 2013 lineup for NBC:
Monday8 PM: The Voice10 PM: The Blacklist
Tuesday8 PM: The Biggest Loser 9 PM: The Voice 10 PM: Chicago Fire
Wednesday8 PM: Revolution 9 PM: Law &amp; Order: Special Victims Unit10 PM: Ironside
Thursday8 PM: Parks And Recreation8:30 PM: Welcome to the Family 9 PM: Sean Saves the World 9:30 PM: The Michael J. Fox Show 10 PM: Parenthood
Friday8 PM: Dateline NBC9 PM: Grimm10 PM: Dracula
Sunday 8:15 PM: NBC Sunday Night Football
More: James Spader Gets Downright Criminal in 'The Blacklist' Trailer NBC's 2013-2014 Shows Feature Dermot Mulroney, Sean Hayes, and MoreNBC Cancels 'The New Normal,' Picks Up 3 New Series
From Our Partners:Watch Justin Bieber Attacked in Dubai (Celebuzz)33 Child Stars: Where Are They Now? (Celebuzz)

NBC may be down four shows (I mean, they weren't very good ones, so no major love lost there) but they're gaining even more. After yesterday's annoucement that new series from the likes of J.J. Abrams and the small screen adaptation of About a Boy would be heading to the peacock network, there's been the annoucement that they have ordered even more shows for the 2013-2014 lineup. Check it out:
-Blair Underwood, whose TV credits include L.A. Law, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Sex and the City, will join the NBC family as his star vehicle, the reboot of the 1960s series Ironside, has been picked up. The drama stars Underwood as a police detective who is bound to a wheelchair after a shooting, but continues to work.
-Bill Lawrence, who brought the likes of Scrubs and Cougar Town to ABC, will now bring his new comedy Undateable to NBC. The show has a familiar, if not usually successful sitcom M.O.: a group of twentysomething friends trying to navigate their love lives.
- Loved Chicago Fire? You're in luck, because NBC has ordered a series spin-off called Chicago PD.
More: Dermot Mulroney, Sean Hayes, Minnie Driver, and More Join NBC's 2013-2014 Lineup Fox Pilot Orders 'Sleepy Hollow' and MoreAndy Samberg's New Comedy Heads to Fox
From Our Partners:Watch Justin Bieber Attacked in Dubai (Celebuzz)33 Child Stars: Where Are They Now? (Celebuzz)

Returned to TV series work as co-star of the CBS medical drama "City of Angels"

Co-authored the fiction novel Casanegra: A Tennyson Hardwick Novel with husband-and-wife team Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due

Cast as lawyer Jonathan Rollins on the NBC series "L.A. Law"; received a Golden Globe nomination in 1990

Played Jackie Robinson in "Soul of the Game" (HBO)

Cast in the comedy feature "Malibu's Most Wanted"

Played the recurring role of billionaire Simon Elder on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money"

Cast as the recurring character Alex in the HBO series "In Treatment"; earned a Golden Globe nomination in 2009 for Supporting Actor

First speaking role on TV in episode of "The Cosby Show" (NBC)

Had featured role in "Rules of Engagement"

Summary

With his successful run playing a brash attorney on the popular Stephen Bochco legal drama "L. A. Law" (NBC, 1986-1994), actor Blair Underwood carved out a niche for himself portraying highly educated authority figures on scores of television series and in feature films. Underwood did all this by managing to avoid negative typecasting of African-American men often seen in Hollywood; earning NAACP Image awards for offering audiences multi-faceted lawyers, doctors and executives in films like "Set it Off" (1996) and "Deep Impact" (1998), and on series ranging from "Sex and the City" (HBO, 1998-2004) to "LAX" (NBC, 2004-05). The Golden Globe nominee also enjoyed opportunities to bring important African-American cultural touchstones to life in acclaimed TV movies like "Murder in Mississippi" (NBC, 1990), the Negro League baseball chronicle "Soul of the Game" (HBO, 1996) and Alex Haley's "Mama Flora's Family" (CBS, 1998). Twice voted one of <i>People</i> magazine's "Sexiest Men," Underwood's versatility and take-charge appeal proved a consistent crowd pleaser with audiences and critics alike.